ABSTRACT
The target users of the model SYMO are technical members of the operation and maintenance team of an irrigation system bureaucracy who are mainly irrigation engineers. While their technical competence are assumed adequate, their knowledge of and exposure to microcomputers can be considered very minimal. The latter attribute is simply due to the fact that the national irrigation bureaucracies in the region has not yet embarked fully on computerization and this is absolutely true in field offices. It was along these two conflicting yet reconcilable attributes that the user-system interface of SYMO was developed. Since the target users can be categorized experts at arriving to the right decisions provided the right background information are available, the system architecture should permit easy processing, summary and evaluation of data and results. In other words, the decision-making process should not be compromised by physical limitations of the user-system interface. With this, the fledgling user can enjoy his first hands-on experience with the microcomputer.
